Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Returning to Sanity	By : AchillesTheGeek Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 31212 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter books or films, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 54
- 55
- 56
55. Returning Things to Where You Found Them
Friday 17 July
After Blaise had left, the next people to visit Harry that morning were two Aurors. At first he was a little surprised that Robin Banks hadn't come; and then it hit him: this was not a social call; Robin was part of what had happened on Tuesday, so he would be under investigation. The Auror department probably wanted to clear his name as quickly as possible; it wouldn't look good to have one of their own under suspicion. Since Harry liked Robin a great deal, he wanted the same thing; so he sat up and paid careful attention.
The two Aurors reminded themselves to him as Toby Proudfoot and Tom Godwin; Harry recalled that they had both seemed quite trustworthy, so he wasn't too put out when they asked Draco and Madame Pomfrey if they 'might interview Mr Potter in private'.
Madam Pomfrey, taking the hint immediately, invited Draco to her office for some tea. Draco looked like he was going to refuse, then rather reticently agreed. He had had to do without Harry for nearly three days and he didn't want to leave at all; but it was obvious that this was an official visit, so he decided to make a virtue of necessity and withdraw voluntarily rather than be kicked out.
"Now, Mr Potter," Godwin began, "we understand that you were acting in the role of teacher's assistant on Tuesday, perhaps you could tell us how that came about?"
Harry nodded.
"I guess we should go back to the whole business of Dumbledore's Army," he said, and gave a potted history of the disaster that had been Defense lessons with Dolores Umbridge, and how he had been practically coerced into teaching the subject himself.
The Aurors were grateful for the background he gave them, and very impressed by his ability to provide a coherent narrative of events. Over the next ten minutes, they questioned Harry rather closely about the whole of Tuesday's events. His testimony, brief, succinct and to the point, corroborated everything that they had heard; it would, Toby Proudfoot thought as he recorded it, make an excellent basis for their report. Rumour had it that Mr Potter wanted to be an Auror; based on this interview, Proudfoot was certain he would make an excellent one, and told him so.
Harry, blushing, decided he had to ask the question that was worrying him: "Will Robin get into trouble?"
Toby Proudfoot chuckled. "Well, obviously Mr Potter, I can't pre-empt any decision made by the Minister; but so far the evidence all says that Auror Banks had acted entirely properly at all times, and with commendable promptness in getting you here."
"Thanks," Harry said with a grin.
"No, thank you, Mr Potter. We'll leave you to enjoy the rest of the day," Tom Godwin replied, and the two Aurors left straight away to file their report.

It seemed to be a day for early morning visitors; no sooner had the Aurors left than the Headmistress arrived, accompanied by Armand Ionescu and Agnes Touauld. Harry wondered idly if Madam Pomfrey felt overshadowed by the very distinguished visitors; but there was no sign of it. Quite the contrary; the two Healers asked her about the case very respectfully, and complimented her on the excellent care she had given.
Naturally, Harry was examined, and poked, and prodded by the medical professionals, while the Headmistress and Draco explained to him everything they knew about what had happened on Tuesday and subsequently. To his relief, after the examination, all three healers pronounced him perfectly healthy.
"Right!" Harry said. "In that case, we do need to get down to breakfast."
He could see at once that Madam Pomfrey was not happy about this idea at all; he was sure she would say that he needed a day of rest to recover, so he decided to jump in quickly.
"Please, Poppy, I promise I'll take it easy today and rest up tomorrow; but I want to see everyone, and get back to classes, and let them all know I'm all right."
The mediwitch hesitated for a moment; but the encouraging faces of the three esteemed visitors seemed to sway her, and she sighed and gave her begrudging consent, telling him to come back at the first sign of weakness, while knowing perfectly well he would collapse in a heap on the floor before he would come back to the medical wing willingly. She consoled herself with the thought that at least Draco Malfoy had a sensible head on his shoulders and would probably drag Harry back if he needed to be here.
"Thanks!" Harry grinned at her, and he and Draco left together with the Headmistress and the two visitors.

"HARRY!" Hermione yelled as they entered the Great Hall, and two seconds later he found his mouth full of bouncy brown hair as she wrapped herself around him, giving him a huge hug.
"Blimey, mate!" Ron said. "I don't get treated like that!"
"Ron!" Hermione scolded. "You've never spent three nights out cold in the Infirmary or made me so worried about you!"
"And that's a bad thing?" Ron asked; but his face held a grin and it was clear to Harry that he was making mischief.
"No!" she shouted back, and then saw that his eyes were glinting. "Oh... men!" she said, exasperated, distractedly hugging Harry even tighter.
"Er, Hermione?" Harry asked, tentatively. "Do you think you could let go a bit so I could breathe?"
"Oh. Sorry," she said, as she let go, and they took their places at the breakfast table.
Harry and Draco naturally sat together; Draco was so close to Harry you couldn't have squeezed a piece of parchment between them; and Harry was delighted when Neville immediately took a seat on the other side of Draco and started discussing their classes for the day with him as he happily passed dishes to and fro. The table seemed to be full of quite normal students enjoying school life together. He looked around the assembled students and chaperones. It was strange to think that, if what he had been told was true, at least one of these people was actively working against the happy cameraderie he saw here. And that thought galvanised something in him. The words he had first thought in this very room, weeks ago, rang through his head clearly again: "Life … Wholeness ... Connection ... Belonging …" That was the kind of society he wanted, one that valued these things. Really valued them, not just espoused them as expedient catch-cries.
It was, perhaps, a pipe dream; but it was his pipe dream, and he was prepared to fight for it.

Harry's fighting spirit was very clearly manifested in their Defense class. Armand decided that it was time to start teaching them some basic Occlumency skills. He began by teaching a basic skill known as the Fortress technique: they were to imagine their mind as being inside a heavily fortified castle, the larger and stronger the better, and make sure that all of their thoughts were covered within its strong walls. He cautioned them that of course, this technique had no subtlety; it was obvious to any attacker that it was being used, and a strong-minded attacker could enter their castle by brute force. The best defenses, he explained, involved tricking the adversary into thinking they had penetrated your mind and learnt your deepest secrets while in fact denying them anything of interest. But such techniques involved a great deal of skill and experience.
"Do you think we'll be able to learn them this year?" Ron asked.
Ionescu looked pensive, and gave him a crooked smile. "Let's see what you can do with the Fortress method first, shall we, and take it from there."
After perhaps a quarter of an hour spent teaching and then having them build a castle in their imagination, he tested the whole class one by one. The test consisted of having each student think of one particular secret image, meaningful to them and just a little bit embarrassing – so they would have an incentive not to let him know, over and above the simple pride of keeping a secret - and then try to fend off a Legilimency attack from him.
"Will you be using force?" Seamus asked him, a touch belligerently.
Ionescu smiled knowingly. "There are other ways to breach the fortress defence," he said mildly; but his eyes were laughing, and it sent a cold chill up the Irishman's spine.
Half an hour later, three quarters of the class had tried to shield their minds and failed spectacularly at this endeavour. There were quite a few red faces, and a lot of giggles; Neville's memory of parading in pink polka-dot panties had been a particular hit. Most of them had in fact constructed quite strong fortresses; but Ionescu was an old hand and knew from experience that beginners always seemed to give their fortresses a side door of some kind. And it was very useful to be able to show them that the technique really wasn't much good against a skilled Legilimens; a large part of successful Defense Against the Dark Arts consisted in understanding the different strengths and weaknesses of various attacks and defenses.
And then Armand came to Harry. He cast Legilimens; and there in front of him a wall loomed. It was not the usual castle wall that he had seen so far, one made out of individual blocks, usually with gate and portcullis and moat; but a whole cliff-face of granite, solid and strong, with no seam or crack anywhere. He mentally walked over to the side, to see if there was a way round; but he found as he did so that the wall seemed to curve around him, and suddenly he found himself being encircled by stone. He realised with a small shock that they seemed to have switched roles: Harry was now the one likely to break into his mind.
"Quite astonishing, Mr Potter," he murmured to the walls surrounding him, knowing that only Harry could hear him. "I congratulate you. This is the strongest Occlumency display I have ever seen."
Instantly, he felt the Legilimens spell snap, and he blinked a few times. He was back in the classroom. The students gaped at him, obviously hoping for some salacious detail of the Chosen One's personal life, while Harry sat there, a tiny smile on his face.
"What did you see?" a student asked. Marie Thibault, he suspected. She was particularly interested in gossip, he had noticed.
"I saw that Mr Potter has grasped Occlumency to a very high standard," he replied. "Now, Mr Zabini?"
And, to the great disappointment of the gossips, that was it.

Draco was very proud to show off his skills again in Transfiguration. The lesson was remarkable in that the Headmistress was accompanied by Monsieur le Professeur Dreyfuss, and also Madame Dubois; so, having a healthy staff to student ratio, Minerva decided to spend the class doing practical spellwork, with the teachers watching the students and making notes on their level of progress. They were about half an hour from the end of the lesson when Hermione put up her hand.
"Yes, Miss Granger?" the Headmistress asked.
"Excuse me, Profess- Headmistress, sorry-"
"Either will do fine," McGonagall said, with a rare smile.
"Yes, right, sorry," Hermione said, flustered by the interruption. "Um – I was just wondering – a lot of this spellwork doesn't seem any harder than sixth year level; are we going to see an increase of difficulty?"
The other students groaned at this question; clearly they were all finding sixth-year level quite hard enough!
"Quite right, Miss Granger. Any other year, you would have ten points for Gryffindor for your alertness. We have indeed now revised the sixth year spells needed for your NEWTs. But the remaining syllabus is particularly difficult, as it involves Transfiguration of large objects – which requires a lot of magical strength – and Transfiguration of complex objects – which requires skill and finesse. Over the next few weeks we will be learning these elements separately, and then putting them together into Human Transfigurations. And then comes magic that not many wizards and witches actually manage, the pinnacle of human transfigurative magic: the creation of an animagus form."
"Is zat really so different to general transfiguration?" Danielle, the more studious of the Thibault twins, asked.
"Oh yes," Dreyfuss replied. "Ze animagus, it still 'as a – how do you say, still thinking?" he continued, looking to McGonagall for help.
"A consciousness," the Headmistress answered promptly. "If I transfigure you into an animal, you will be that animal, and not be aware at all. But an animagus knows exactly what is happening, and still has their right mind."
Draco blushed rather red during this comment, remembering a certain incident involving a fake Alistor Moody and an all-too-real ferret. A thought struck him and he put up his hand.
"Yes, Mr Malfoy?" the Headmistress said in acknowledgement.
"If the difference is consciousness, and the wolfsbane potion means that a werewolf keeps their mind during the transformation, does that mean that some potion could make the difference between transfigured form and animagus?"
A small frisson of interest went through the class. Harry noticed that Stefan Ivanov was particularly interested; but then Potions was his subject, after all.
"Zat is a most interesting question," Madame Dubois said. "I don't zink anyone 'as researched it. Do you know, Madame la Directrice?"
"No I don't, and you are right, it is a most interesting question. Perhaps you and Mr Ivanov could discuss it with Professor Slughorn?"
Draco nodded in reply; though he had no intention of involving either of the other two in discussion. No, this was his idea. He would discuss it with Borage.
The discussion continued until the bell rang for lunch.

As part of the visitation programme set up at Hogwarts, the Department of International Magical Co-operation had naturally put in a standing request to be informed of any developments that could have an impact on the relationship with Beauxbatons or the Durmstrang Institute. Given the presence of students from the two very important international educational establishments in all classes at Hogwarts, that basically meant that the DIMC was being given a copy of all paperwork regarding the school. Accordingly, the Auror's report into the attack on Harry Potter landed on the Deputy Head's desk just on lunchtime. The Deputy Head, one Anton Rosier, was well-versed in the machinery of politics, and knew perfectly well the old trick of delivering a report you'd rather got ignored just as people were leaving for lunch, or for the day; so he forced himself to sit back down at his desk and peruse the papers.
Ten minutes later his knuckles were white as his hands clenched around the document in question very, very tightly indeed.
"Appleby!" he called.
His own deputy walked in rather cautiously; his boss's tone had not been encouraging. One look told Arnold Appleby that Rosier was hopping mad; he could only hope it was nothing he'd done. "Yes, sir?" the man asked, taking care to keep his own voice colourless and obsequious.
"Would you be good enough to find out for me why it is that there was an incident at Hogwarts on Tuesday, and we are only finding out about it today?" Rosier asked, his voice quiet and full of menace.
"Yes, sir," Appleby replied, very grateful for the opportunity to get out of the cursing line, as wizards say. With his boss in this mood, heads were likely to roll. And Appleby was rather fond of his head. He had visions of a bright future in the Ministry; 'Arnold Appleby, Head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation' had a nice ring to it, he thought, as a stepping-stone to the main prize, 'Arnold Appleby, Minister for Magic'. Of course, that meant getting rid of his boss and the current Head of Department; but his boss's temper was going to be the death of him sometime, and the big boss was a supreme incompetent. And Appleby had time on his side; he was thirty years younger than both men. He could bide his time.
Meanwhile, he had better make sure that it was an Auror that the boss wanted to eviscerate. He knew just the man, too. That young Auror who was stationed at Hogwarts was too clever by half…

Muggle Studies involved a guest lecture from Dempster Wiggleswade, who discussed the Statute of Secrecy and its implications for them as they interacted with the Muggle world. It could have been a very boring class indeed; but somehow, even though Wiggleswade was a dry old stick, he seemed to make what he said relevant to what they were doing, and the class was actually quite lively.
Was it just fancy, Harry wondered, or was there a residual fear from the events of Tuesday preying on people's minds, and encouraging them to discuss dangers and how to avoid them? He and the other Muggle-raised magicals were able to provide a point of view that challenged a lot of the preconceptions of their peers: what with cars, and aeroplanes, and guns, and the Internet, the Muggle world was developing technology that was closing the gap that they saw between the two worlds.
This occasioned a good deal of debate; initially most of the pure-bloods could not believe that Muggles would ever pose a threat, but after Ron explained his adventures flying to Australia, with scanning devices, and the aeroplanes themselves, their complacency started to crack. Typical, Harry thought; it took a fellow pure-blood to convince them that the threat was real. But, he supposed, at least they were giving some credence to the idea.
The class continued to be very lively, and everyone went away quite stirred up, and determined to research the Muggle world quite carefully now that they understood there could be a threat here – which Dempster was delighted to watch. This was precisely the result that Chief Warlock Doge and Deputy Minister Weasley had been hoping for: that the students would see Muggle Studies not as a waste of time, but on the contrary as an important part of keeping aware of the dangers around them.

As the Professors had requested that Draco attend the Defense class on Friday mornings, they had been together all day so far. Harry decided, in view of the attack from Tuesday, that he wasn't taking any chances with leaving Draco alone, so he accompanied him to his Ancient Runes class. Professor Babbling seemed surprised to see him, but was quite happy for him to attend, as long as he didn't disturb her class.
Harry was grateful for the opportunity, and sat next to Draco, not expecting to understand a thing; but, to his surprise, he found the runes being written quite intelligible, and even corrected some of the work Draco was doing.
"When did you get so good at runes, Potter?" Draco asked him with a mock-sarcastic voice.
"I don't know," Harry replied simply enough. "It all just suddenly seemed to click."

At Spinner's End, Rookwood could finally feel the wards shifting. He had begun to wonder if they should cut their losses and try to find what they needed elsewhere; but who else would have a copy of Deep Memory Magic: Theory and Practise? No-one that he knew of, that was for sure. The Ministry had clamped down hard on the estates of all the known Death Eaters, and confiscated everything vaguely dark; there's no way that there was going to be an easily accessible copy anyway but here or, at a stretch, Malfoy Manor. But, even though Lucius was a skilled Legilimens, Memory Magic had never really been a strong interest of the Malfoy family.
But now at last, he was beginning to see some progress. He called out, and Umbridge looked up.
"Are you through?" she demanded.
Rookwood snorted. "Hardly. But I've managed to get under the first layer. Maybe a day or two more …"
The other two groaned. But really, what else was there to do? At least Spinner's End made an excellent hide-out; Potter was in school, and had probably never been here anyway, and the Ministry wasn't going to show any interest in Snape's old house now that the will had been executed and everyone knew it was Potter's personal property. They were probably safer here than anywhere else; it might be slow going, but at least they weren't going to be interrupted
Rookwood applied himself to the wards again.

At dinnertime there was a surprise awaiting the students: as Robin was staying at the castle over the weekend, Ginny had been given special permission to join them. This was a very welcome development; Gin was like a breath of fresh air as she showed off George and Fred's latest prank items and laughed and joked with everyone. The Beauxbatons girls seemed to warm to her; Harry guessed that perhaps they didn't see her as a threat, given that she and Robin were practically engaged; and the young red-head certainly seemed to offer them lots of encouragement and advice about courting shy Englishmen.
The evening turned out to be very pleasant, as after dinner everyone obviously felt they needed to let their hair down, so homework was done in double-quick time, and they all relaxed in the common room. Ron challenged Draco to a game of chess, which turned into a best-of-five when Draco won the first game, while the rest sat around chatting or playing cards. But Harry couldn't help but be watchful; it was most probably one of these students who had tried to attack him, after all.
The chess players were very evenly matched; it was two-all after four games, and the fifth game concluded in stalemate, as Draco, though down on material, had Ron in perpetual check. Draco shook hands with the redhead and went over to Harry. He could feel the tension in his fiancé, so he suggested quietly that they should call it a night. Harry looked around. He knew that everyone wanted to chat with him, but he had had enough; he had made a point of spending some time with each of his friends, and even sat with Blaise and Pansy for a few minutes, and he decided that spending the rest of the night exclusively with Draco sounded like a wonderful idea …

Saturday morning saw Harry and Draco in Muggle London; Lucius had arranged for them to meet with some people who could help them with their Muggle Studies assignments, and this was the first opportunity they had to use the contacts. Harry spent a very pleasant couple of hours in a coffee-shop with two barristers, who happily told him stories of their adventures in the Old Bailey. He found them very interesting, and very helpful; for their part, they were delighted to have someone so keen to listen to them – for it is in a barrister's blood to enjoy an appreciative audience – and offered to meet with him whenever he liked, subject to their work schedules. One of them, a very experienced barrister called Ken Barnett, had a case in progress, and invited Harry to turn up any afternoon – there would be room for him in the public gallery, he assured him, and Ken would happily explain things to him after the day was finished if he liked.
Draco, for his part, spent a wonderful morning in the Specialist Pharmacy; Lucius had managed to get him a contact at this very restricted facility, and the Muggle pharmacist exceptionally came into work on a Saturday morning especially to show him what went on in a compounding pharmacy. He watched enthralled as the woman used generally familiar techniques to produce the various medicines required; he was intrigued to learn the care that she took, and she explained that a compounding pharmacy produced medicines tailored to a particular patient, while the very large pharmaceutical laboratories would mass-produce generic medicines. A number of things became particularly clear to Draco as he watched: she loved her work, but had very little love for the large companies; she was extremely skilled at what she did; she used some techniques he didn't know (he took careful note of these, to see if he could learn anything that might be useful in potions work); and the Muggles understood the properties of chemical compounds in very different ways to how wizards understood them.
The two lads returned to the Castle for lunch deep in thought. They had each learnt a very great deal, and both been surprised at the richness and breadth of knowledge that the Muggle world had to offer.
Arthur Weasley's notion was already bearing fruit.

After lunch, Robin invited them to walk with him, Ginny and Ron to Hogsmeade; Ginny and Ron wanted to case Zonko's Joke Shop, which the twins had already been sniffing out; Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was doing so well that they were they were thinking about making a bid to buy their competition out. The five of them had a quick look round, and then Robin took Harry and Draco to The Three Broomsticks where they found a quiet corner.
"It's lovely having Ginny around," Harry said by way of conversation. "She seems to be particularly friendly with the Beauxbatons girls."
"Yes," Robin said, a touch sheepishly. "Actually, that's not entirely random. I asked her to suss them out for me; I reckon Tuesday's coin must have come from one of them, and Gin's much more likely to find out which in casual conversation than I am."
Harry looked confused by this pronouncement, but Draco's face shone with understanding.
"I knew it!" he said. "I knew she wasn't just here by chance. And you say it was a coin?"
"Almost certainly," Robin replied. "The usual thing is to curse a galleon with the Flagrante Transfero curse, and then wrap it in a preservation hex. Done properly, it's nearly undetectable unless you know what you're looking for. And being so small and so common, they're so easy to transport, and so hard to suspect."
Harry's face had changed completely during Robin's explanation; his face now looked stern and forbidding.
"But you do know what you're looking for, right?"
"Yes," Robin said slowly, a little puzzled by the question, but happy for Harry to take this wherever he wanted.
"And this whole thing has been set up carefully, yes?"
"Obviously," Draco replied. "So?"
"So whoever used it would have to have more, right? You wouldn't take just one chance, it might fail. If you're going to go to a lot of trouble, you're going to do it thoroughly."
"And that means there must be more of them," Robin said, sighing that he hadn't realised this before.
"So we should search Dumbledore Tower?" Draco asked.
"No, they're not there," Harry replied, with absolute conviction.
"How can you be sure?" Robin asked.
"I would have felt them. I'm sure of it," Harry replied, and no-one disagreed.
"So, where then?" Robin asked.
Harry sat back, deep in thought. After about five minutes he suddenly sat bolt upright.
"The Charms classroom," he muttered. "Has to be."
"What?" Robin asked. "How do you work that out?"
"Pardon?" Harry said. "Oh, did I say that out loud? But think about it: it has to be somewhere accessible; it can't be anywhere directly connected with any student; it has to be somewhere where anyone goes fairly frequently. People go and see Professor Flitwick all the time, and he's happy for people to use the Charms classroom whenever they want. And there are personal items there, stored under compulsion charms to keep everyone away."
"I see," Robin said thoughtfully. "Yes, it does seem that the Charms classroom is an excellent hiding place."
"Hello!" Ginny said brightly as she and Ron entered their conversation. "Anyone for more butterbeer?"

He was through. At last. He muttered the final incantation, wiped around the doorframe with his wand just to be sure – it would not look good to successfully break through a so-called Unbreakable ward only to be hit by a simple Cutting Curse straight after. Before going in, he looked around to find that he was all alone; the others had gone out to get food, he remembered. Good. They wouldn't get in the way.
He turned the handle. The door opened easily, and soundlessly. He stepped into the room. It was very neat; everything was carefully piled up. He noticed that there was no dust; but a quick check showed that the room, like the rest of the house, was under strong preservation charms, so there was no reason why there should be.
He hunted through the room quickly and quietly. He was delighted to find that the books were carefully grouped by subject; Severus Snape had had a brilliant mind, and the layout and organisation of the room bore witness to it. He found the sections on cursebreaking mind magic easily enough; they would need Dark Cursebreaking to remove the curse from the circlet, and Memory Magic: Theory and Practise to perform the ritual. He took the books and went out back into the sitting room. He didn't want to read them at Severus's desk; that would have felt wrong, somehow.

Sunday 19 July
It wasn't until late Sunday morning that the little group got a chance to meet up in the Charms classroom without causing suspicion. Robin decided that there was no point in even trying to keep the two Weasleys out of it, and Ron had told Hermione, so the group was a little large for easy clandestine activity; but as there were lots of small groups moving around the castle, they didn't attract any unwanted attention.
As soon as Harry walked into the room, he was drawn to a bookshelf at the back of the room; he stood in front of it, muttering very quietly to himself, for so long, that Draco asked, "lost the plot, Potter?"
"Shut it, Malfoy," he replied, but there was not heat in the words. It actually gave him a little thrill that Draco's sarcastic side was coming back into play; it told him that his blond lover's personality was not being strangled by the Debt and he wasn't being forced to be someone he wasn't.
He waved a hand, and the book he had been concentrating on intently for perhaps ten minutes glowed a golden yellow. Satisfied that he had disabled all the wards and tracking spells, and that it was now safe to do so, he picked up the book, laid it closed, front cover up on a nearby desk, and opened it. Instead of text, there was a large picture of a miser, sitting in a garret, counting huge piles of coins. Harry waved his hand over the picture, and one of the coins was levitated out of the frame altogether, and then followed the curve of his hand as he moved it over off the book and onto the benchtop.
"Try that," he said to Robin, with a lop-sided grin. As he looked, he saw that the others were looking at him open-mouthed.
"Catching flies?" he asked, laconically.
"Wandless, wordless magic!" Ginny exclaimed.
"Oh, yeah, sorry, I just couldn't be bothered getting my wand out."
"That's what you said at Shell Cottage, mate, and the answer is still the same," Ron replied, "there are wizards who never manage to do that, but you do it just to save yourself getting your wand out!"
While they were talking, Robin had been casting spells over the coin on the bench.
"Definitely cursed," he said. "I think we should put a tracking charm on it," and he did so as he spoke, "and put it back into the book."
Suiting the action to the words, he levitated the coin – using his wand, and a spoken Wingardium Leviosa, being nowhere as adept at levitation charms as Harry obviously was – and put it back into the book. Harry closed it and put it back on the shelf; then carefully reset all the charms and wards on it, so that the person who put it there should be none the wiser.
"Lunch?" he suggested.
"Thought you'd never ask," Ron replied with a grin.

Professor Sprout had planted a new row of oak trees near the lake to honour the fallen of the Battle of Hogwarts. Of course, if Nature had her way, they would never have survived; but the Herbology Professor knew what she was doing, and the trees thrived, and, to the Potions Professors' delight, proved to be an excellent source of mistletoe.
The students loved them too. As well as mistletoe, they provided acorns that made wonderful objects to practise transfiguration on; and shade that was delightful to sit under; and privacy. The trees had grown in little clumps, and groups of students soon had their favourite group of trees to sit under.
That Sunday morning, one student was sitting in a little group of friends under one of the oak trees within sight of the Whomping Willow when a soft vibration in the little acorn secreted in a pocket of the school robes made itself felt. The little, unobtrusive charm that had been carefully set days before had tripped. Noting that it was nearly lunchtime, the student signaled to the group and they all rose together, ostensibly to head in to eat. But one of their number had another agenda: the charm had been tripped; someone had been into the Charms classroom and found the book. But by the way the acorn had vibrated, none of the dark objects had been removed. So, then, it must be the little group which had been wandering apparently aimlessly, but actually making for the classroom. As if that group would ever do anything aimless: with an Auror, Banks or something like that, and Potter, and Malfoy, and Weasley and his sister, and the bushy-haired know-all, they were always going to be up to something together.
He wasn't surprised. It couldn't stay secret forever; that Auror was pretty clever. And, despite the propaganda that had been drummed into him, he knew perfectly well that Potter was no slouch either. Add Granger, and they probably had enough brains and certainly enough magical power to face almost anything. He wanted to know exactly what they had found out; but he knew he would have to tread carefully now. This could so easily turn ugly …

"The Durmstrang boy is looking at you," Marie said to the girl on her left. "Do you think he fancies you?"
Her companion looked up from her lunch, but was careful not to stare in the direction indicated. "Which one?" she asked.
"The quiet one. Anderson, or whatever his name is."
"Anderssen," she corrected automatically. He was cute, and she had always made a point of remembering the cute, quiet ones. Apart from anything else, whether intentionally or otherwise, they tended to be the root cause of the most trouble. She selected an apple, and peeled it carefully, looking up and down the table quite naturally as she did so, nodding at a few other diners and exchanging occasional pleasant words. It seemed entirely normal when she addressed Smetana and asked how the Durmstrang lads had spent the weekend.
"You should ask them," he replied. He turned to the blond Durmstrang student. "Anders? What have you been up to?"
The older and taller boy turned to look at his questioner and she surveyed him shrewdly as he explained about the homework he had been doing. It all sounded very boring, and she said so. To her surprise, he seemed relieved as he replied that Stefan had a more interesting life, and turned to the young dark-haired Bulgarian.
But she had seen something in his eyes in the few seconds he had spoken. He was afraid, she was sure of it. But of what, exactly? What was he up to? What did he know?

After lunch, to no-one's surprise, Hermione decided that she needed to investigate the magic they had seen a little further, and headed straight for the library. Ron groaned, but nonetheless tagged along behind her like a dutiful puppy. Robin invited the other three to come and sit in the little sitting room that he had been given as part of his Professorial quarters.
"I'm sure that Hermione will have more to say about the events here later on," he said once they were all comfortable. "But I thought I should update you about other matters."
Harry cottoned on immediately to what he must mean, but was a little concerned. "Er, does Ginny know about that?" he asked cagily.
"About your adventures from last weekend?" Ginny replied. "Certainly do. I made him tell me. Or did you think I wouldn't notice when he gets stolen from me during the weekend as well as the week?"
Robin looked rather sheepish; but Harry roared with laughter.
"It's all right, Robin," he said once he had calmed down. "You had no chance."
"Quite," Robin replied. "Well, Rookwood managed to breach the wards yesterday afternoon."
Draco looked stunned. "It took him a whole week?"
Robin grinned. "Yep. Very impressive, Harry."
"I bet the whole department is in uproar," Draco suggested.
"Ah, yeah, about that," Robin said. "The Department doesn't know. We believe there's a mole in the Ministry somewhere; so it was decided to keep this operation very secret. So I'd appreciate it if nothing went further than this room. You, um, haven't mentioned it to anyone else, have you?"
Draco shook his head, while Harry replied, with a wry smile, "haven't had much of an opportunity, have I?"
Robin chuckled. "I suppose not. Right, well, they're through; not only that, but they've found the books they're after. Knowing that they're planning some activation ritual at Devil's Crag, I put tracking charms on a few likely candidates; two books have been removed from the study."
"What's this about Devil's Crag? You didn't tell me about that!" Ginny exclaimed.
"You know about that?" Robin asked. Ginny nodded in reply.
"And what is it?" Harry interjected.
"A better question would be, 'Where is it?'," Robin replied. "It's an old place of magical power. It's particularly favoured for Dark rituals that involve mind power: astral travel, mass hypnotism, creating false memories. Not much used in recent times because you need a strong focus of magical energy; we think they've probably got hold of some dark artefact to do that for them. We learnt that they intend to use it because they were stupid enough to talk about it openly, and we have a witness. And no, I'm not going to tell you who."
"All right, so, which two books were removed?" Draco asked.
"Dark Cursebreaking – which confirms they've found some dark object to use as a focus; and Memory Magic: Theory and Practise, which contains the instructions for the ritual."
"Hang on," Harry objected. "Memory Magic: Theory and Practise? Isn't that the book Draco found?"
Robin nodded, and Harry continued, "but … We took it away with us. So how could they find it?"
"Ah," Robin said with a knowing smirk, "I put it back. But," he continued quickly as the two young men began to object, "I didn't leave it unchanged …"
As Harry watched, the smirk seemed to spread from Robin to Draco; and then suddenly Harry got the point too. The instructions had been altered; when they performed the ritual, it wouldn't work as they intended.
Harry wondered exactly what it would do, and asked Robin; but he just smiled and told them it would be a fun surprise; and they couldn't get anything more out of him.

When the shoppers returned, Rookwood was seated at the kitchen table, with six sheets of parchment in front of him.
"Did you get through?" Umbridge asked as soon as she saw him.
"Yes," he replied softly, his attention still focused on the pages he had copied that were laid out in front of him.
"Well, why are you sitting here then?" she asked. "Surely the study is more comfortable?"
Rookwood looked at her as though she had lost her sanity.
"Because we still have to lay low for another week at least," he replied. "If there are tracking charms, or monitoring spells, tramping about inside Snape's personal study is guaranteed to set them off. I have carefully abstracted the two books of interest, copied the sections we need," – here he indicated the pages in front of him with a sweep of his hand – "and restored the books. As for the wards, I took care to open them up carefully so that I could layer them back how they were originally. No-one will be able to tell we have been here."
Umbridge looked very put out. "Damn," she said. "I so wanted to burn the lot."
"Don't be ridiculous!" Rookwood hissed, as he gathered his precious parchments and went off in a huff.
Barnes smirked at her. "Don't forget he's a thinker," he reminded her. "Burning books is a major sin."
Umbridge simpered at him. She would play along, of course; after all, she still needed these two.
For the moment, at least.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have set up a thread for replies at http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/56042-review-replies-for-returning-to-sanity/ . Please indicate which chapter you are reading, as aff doesn't make that clear. I will generally try to reply to posts before posting a new chapter.
The story is betaed by the wonderful BickyMonster, http://members.adult-fanfiction.org/profile.php?no=1296919762, with assistance from ruth_lity. The remaining errors are all my own!
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Returning to Sanity